(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooler module for cooling an electronic chip and more particularly to such a cooler module, which has its parts tightly fitted together with a thermal pad at the bottom side of the base block thereof kept in close contact with the hot part of an electronic chip for dissipation of heat energy from the electronic chip rapidly.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Heat pipes are intensively used in cooler modules for cooling semiconductor chips or the like. In addition to heat tubes, a cooler module further comprises a heat sink formed of a stack of radiation fins, and a base block. The radiation fins are extruded from aluminum or copper. The heat tubes are enclosed metal tubes filled with a working fluid. The base block is an aluminum or copper block. Because the heat tubes and base block of this design of cooler module are made of different materials, a nickel plating technique is necessary so that the heat pipes and the base block can be bonded together by applying a tin solder or thermal glue. The fabrication and assembly of this cooler module is complicated, resulting in low yield rate and high manufacturing cost. Soldering between the base block and the heat tubes relatively lowers the heat transfer efficiency of the cooler module. Further, soldering the heat tubes to the base block may cause environmental pollution, not in conformity with environmental regulations. Although a copper base block has a thermal conductivity better than an aluminum base block, use of expensive copper material relatively increases the cost of the cooler module. Therefore, aluminum is commonly used for making base blocks for cooler modules. However, an aluminum base block has a relatively lower thermal conductivity relative to a copper base block. It is difficult to cut the cost while maintaining a high thermal conductivity.